Man accused of faking death sentenced to prison

MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota man convicted in an $11 million insurance fraud case has been sentenced in federal court after trying to avoid prison by faking his own death.

A U.S. District Court judge on Monday sent Travis Scott to prison for 12 years and eight months after the 36-year-old Eden Prairie man pleaded for compassion. The Star Tribune says Scott's elaborate plan to fake his death was outlined in a memo by his attorney Marsh Halberg.

Authorities say Scott placed some of his teeth, blood and hair into a stocking cap in 2011, put the cap, with a bullet hole in it, in a canoe on Lake Mille Lacs and left a suicide note. Mille Lacs County Sheriff Bruce Lindgren says investigators quickly suspected the suicide was faked.